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Toronto Buyouts: Voluntary Separation Package Offered To 17,000 City Employees


First Posted: 07/12/11 03:29 PM ET Updated: 09/11/11 06:12 AM ET

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City Hall

THE CANADIAN PRESS -- Thousands of city workers in Toronto are being offered buyouts in a bid to trim a bulging budget.

City manager Joe Pennachetti announced details of the buyout offer today, saying 17,000 workers are eligible.

He says he's not sure how much the buyouts will cost, since it's not yet known how many people will take the offer.

The deadline for workers to accept the offer is Sept. 9.

Union, non-union and management employees are all being offered buyouts of up to six months salary, but Pennachetti says police, transit and library workers are not included.

The city's 2012 budget has a $775-million shortfall and Mayor Rob Ford has made cost-cutting a top priority.

The buyout offers come on the heels of a core services review in which consultants studied each city department and identified millions of dollars in potential savings.

More to come

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
arkymorgan
Nobody knows the trouble I've been...
837 Fans
04:54 PM on 07/15/2011
You push out employees to balance your books - wind up with fewer people paying taxes, lose more money, lay off more people - meanwhile EI and welfare costs go up to handle the additional out-of-work people, so provincial and federal costs rise, so they lay off some people to balance _their_ books...

3-card monty, anyone?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
340 Fans
12:59 AM on 07/13/2011
Toronto can't afFORD much more of Rob Ford. The BADYEAR BLIMP will be gone come next election.
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procrustes13
506 Fans
12:29 AM on 07/13/2011
The city will fall to pieces and become a tollbooth economy. That's what happens when the Right gets its claws on a jurisdiction.
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LetsKeepitSimple
79 Fans
10:14 PM on 07/12/2011
bloat·ed (bltd)
adj.
1. Much bigger than desired: a bloated bureaucracy; a bloated budget.
2. Medicine Swollen or distended beyond normal size by fluid or gaseous material.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
tnanimation
340 Fans
01:00 AM on 07/13/2011
And a bloated, cowardly Mayor that has no ideas and can only cut, cut, cut.
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Huston19
10 Fans
09:28 PM on 07/12/2011
The city should just directly fund labour and projects using it's own currency. If their projects and services actually function well, then the value of the currency should not fell. Currently, this funding is debt based. Absolutely no reason to have municipal bonds.
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LetsKeepitSimple
79 Fans
10:13 PM on 07/12/2011
Oh good, pay the employees with the funny money too......try it
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Huston19
10 Fans
10:58 PM on 07/12/2011
Better than with funny money that puts you into debt. In fact, if the funny money is backed up by assets, like labour, that should provide the valuation of that money, and is not funny money at all. Currently the value of a currency is set by the bond holders, who of course buy those bonds with funny money. What is the real funny money?
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LetsKeepitSimple
79 Fans
09:36 AM on 07/13/2011
I just would like to see it, the Canadian funny money is better than most... BTW I have a $500,000,000,000 Zimbabwe dollar bill that is 2 years old, was worth, maybe a penny when I got it, likely much less now.
Money is just a way to make trade simple, when its printed in large quantities it loses its value.
Its impossible to print gold, oil, copper, wheat, etc etc and that is why "Stuff" will continue to increase in value.
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